BMW's best brand champion

Here is a video put together by the son of a motorcycle owner. It's got to be one of the best brand-building commercials of all time, and BMW would be wise to buy the rights to it straight away.

The video was posted to YouTube last August and since then has been incredibly popular on motorcycle and BMW forum sites, altogether clocking up nearly 350,000 views.

The backstory of the video is an amazing story of how a brand can work its way across generations, interweaving itself in the emotional bonds of a family. Here it is as told by YouTube user 42bill:

"This is a photo story of my father's 1958 BMW R50:

Boy meets girl, gets married, buys motorcycle. Rides it for 60,000 miles and has accident when wife is pregnant with 3rd child (me). Wife orders motorcycle to be taken off road until all her children are grown and on their own. One day when bike is moved to a different storage location, son sits on bike and dreams of being a Jedi Master like his father. Couple grows old together and bike is not ridden for 40 years. Husband is now a grandfather of 7 and married for 50 years, when he dies of a stroke at age 71.

Son looks over the old rotting machine and finds note attached to it from his father to him. Son decides to restore the old 1958 BMW R-50 as a tribute to his father. With the help of many friends, especially Peter Nettesheim, world renowned BMW collector, bike is restored to look even better than it did when it was built in Germany."

42bill - Dream Brand Champion

When a business knows and is able to effectively communicate its core values, it will then connect with your brand champions, internally and externally. Brand champions are internal and external story tellers who live the brand vision and values. Every organisation requires committed and passionate brand champions. The more employees that an organisation is able to nurture as brand champions, the better it will be able to grow and maintain strong brand equity. L'Oreal, Harley Davidson, Nike, Google and LEGO are some good examples of companies that have benefited greatly from having strong and dedicated brand champions as employees.

Can anyone show me a more moving, brand-championing piece of work anywhere than 42bill's video? This guy even forked out $1,000 of his own money to secure the rights of the Pearl Jam song. This is the sort of passion and dedication that BMW has earned and is able to capitalise on.